Meet Keith McCollum. He is the owner and founder of the local furniture store, Warehouse 764, located at 764 East 7th Street. Keith purchased the building in January 2019 and after a massive renovation process, was finally able to open the doors to the public in October 2019. Warehouse 764 is a twice-a-month warehouse sales event where you can find high-quality furniture and home decor at unbelievable prices. It is open every other weekend with the hours being Saturday from 9:00am to 3:00pm and Sunday from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. This concept allows him to deliver the highest possible value to customers while at the same time, spending more time with his family. Their goal is to use aggressive buying along with extremely low overhead by operating out of a warehouse & only opening a few days a month to offer prices that anyone can afford. It’s a WIN/WIN for Keith & his customers.
Thank you, Keith, for offering great deals and unique furniture to the community of Lexington.
Questions:
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Lexington?
A: All my life. I am actually from Jessamine County. I graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree of Computer Information System and moved to Dallas for 5 years and from there I moved to Boston for 2 years. My objective the whole time is to work long enough so I could save capital to become an entrepreneur.
Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
A: I had a buddy in college who always knew that I wanted to have my own business. To make money through college we represented his dad, which was an artist, and we got into art fairs. Once we graduated college and saved some money, he and I just got together and opened an art gallery and accessory store. And from there we just kind of grew into furniture industry overtime it just kept growing and growing and getting bigger and bigger. We failed majorly at that first business but part of business is learning from your mistakes.
Q: What would you like for people know about your business?
A: I guess the biggest thing is that I’ve been in the furniture industry for 16 years now. I’ve been in retail and always hated to be a furniture salesman, I wanted the process to be more authentic. There’s no furniture salesman in here. We hire friends and family and none of them have a sales background. It’s all about letting people shop and really find what they want without trying to sell them on something. We are here and giving them assistance, advice, and give them knowledge about the product if they ask. With owning a warehouse and having a low over head structure with low employment, I’m able to really squeeze the price. I buy aggressively and I know the context of the industry now and I go and make deals. We’re kind of like a high end Homegoods store. I can take a $4000 sectional and can sell it for half the price due to the structure of our business. I love when when someone comes in and googles our products because they’ll see what type of value we are giving them. What you see on the salesfloor is what you take home and we sell a lot of unique things. You probably won’t see 75% of what you see in here again after you buy it because it’s one of a kind.
Q: What forms of payment do you accept?
A: We do all credit cards, cash and checks. We’ve also started doing 12 months interest free.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Lexington, and what do you love there?
A: I love Malone’s. Rib-eye steak is my favorite with a Lexingtonian salad.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?
A: I’ve never been to Ireland and I love to see it because of my background, I’m Scottish and Irish.
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: Skydiving would be awesome. I love adventure.
Q: What is your favorite music and who is your favorite artist?
A: I listened basically to everything from country, to R&B, and pop. I hate to go back to the old days but my favorite artist would have to be AC/DC.
Q: If you have family and friends who come here to visit, where would you take them?
A: I’ll take them to Keeneland. I brag Keeneland all the time to my friends. Also, a Kentucky basketball game and any kind of music festival that’s going on.
Q: Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative with whom would you love to have lunch?
A: Probably Bill Gates. I just respect how he built something massive from nothing. The reason I’m an entrepreneur is not really for the money but for process of building something and putting something together from nothing.
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Lexington?
A: The people. It’s more of the community. When I lived in Dallas, it was great because it was so big and there’s so much to do and people were nice but you really don’t have the sense of community like you have here in Lexington. It’s big enough but small enough to feel like you’re part of it. city with a small town feel. And I would say, Keeneland and the horse community is one of the best in the world.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
A: I’d like to see myself a little bit more of a family man. With my first business failing and overcoming that, then building this, it’s taken a lot of sacrifices from myself and my wife. I would like to get a little bit more balanced with this business and become more focused on my family.
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: I have an identical twin brother.
Q: If you had a full time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny?
A: Fitness Trainer because being a business owner you’re pulled a lot and sometimes having someone push you to focus on your health would be nice.
Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?
A: Jennifer Aniston.
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: The biggest advice I could give is to really be persistent and consistent. With my experience in business, building what I have and the hardships I’ve went through to get to this point, by being persistent and consistent I think you’ll make it too.
